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The world cradle of desalination know-how wants to start using itIF CALIFORNIA were not already so famous for Silicon Valley and Hollywood, it might be renowned for the cluster of water-technology firms in its San Diego County. The reverse-osmosis (RO) spiral module, the trick that underpins turning sea- and waste-water into potable stuff, was patented in San Diego in 1964. Today dozens of firms in the area supply many of the world’s roughly 13,000 RO plants in places from the Persian Gulf and Israel to Australia, China, Singapore and Spain.